Trump praises ‘my African-American’ supporter at rally

Donald Trump singled out a black supporter at a rally in California on Friday as he sought to demonstrate his support among African-Americans, saying, “Look at my African-American over here!”

At the Friday rally, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in the middle of describing a past campaign event, at which he said a black supporter “slugged” protesters who were dressed in a “Ku Klux Klan outfit.”

“I want to find out what’s going on with him,” Trump said of the supporter at the previous rally. He then appeared to spot a black person in the audience of Friday’s event in northern California.

“Oh, look at my African-American over here,” an excited Trump said, while pointing into the crowd. “Look at him. Are you the greatest? You know what I’m talking about? OK!”

Polls have consistently shown that when it comes to support among African-American voters, Trump trails his likely general election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

After pointing out the audience member, Trump then went on with his story, which appeared to match the events of a March rally that took place in Arizona.

“We had an African-American guy at one of the rallies a month ago, and he was sitting there behaving,” Trump said. “And we had protesters inside the arena. And they were dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, OK?

“This African-American gets up and, man, he slugged these guys. He slugged them.”

Trump said many people thought the black supporter at the earlier rally was an opponent of his campaign.

“He was like this great guy, military guy, we have tremendous African-American support,” he said. “The reason is I’m going to bring jobs back to our country.”

Trump spent much of the Redding rally bashing Clinton. He also pledged to “play heavy in California” in an effort to capture the Electoral College’s biggest prize in November.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.